Hot Mail

by Janice Maynard

The author of By Appointment Only pens an erotic scorcher that cranks up the heat with some sexy Valentines.

Jane has wanted Ethan for years but has never found a way to tell him. With Valentine's Day fast approaching, she decides to seduce him by sending anonymous erotic valentines every Friday until the big day. Then she'll finally reveal her true feelings— and wildest desires.

But when her stationery store is vandalized, it's Ethan who comes to her rescue—and the sparks start flying way ahead of schedule. Now Jane and her erotic alter ego are competing for Ethan's affections— and the results couldn't be hotter.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Erotic Romance, Friends To Lovers, Fiction, Erotica

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 11, 2008

About the author

Janice Maynard came to the writing life early! When her third grade short story, “The Princess and the Robbers”, won a red ribbon in a school arts fair, Janice was hooked. She followed up that early success with a more commercial piece in the sixth grade… “Why My Mom Loves To Drink Coke”. No advance for that one, but she won a six-pack of Coke… remember those great little bottles?

In junior high Janice began circulating her work to a wider audience. A dozen or so notebook pages stapled together made the rounds in some particularly boring classes, with the riveting tales carefully hidden behind textbooks.

High school meant the big time… editor of the school newspaper, the Maroon and White. Janice used her insightful editorials to delve into such meaty subjects as “locker room odor” and “why we need two-ply tissue in the student bathrooms”.

College brought lots of writing, but very little of it creative… four years later, Janice stepped into the adult world as a fully certified elementary teacher.

Despite motherhood, full-time employment, and keeping up with an “always into something” husband, Janice never lost her love of writing or the desire to be published. In 1996 she realized her long-time dream when Kensington Publishing bought her first book, Sweetheart. That exciting moment was followed by the sales of two more books in the Precious Gem line.

In the fall of 2002, Janice left the classroom to pursue writing full-time.

Reviews

[Julie (jjmachshev) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans of the 'friends to lovers' theme will absolutely love "Hot Mail" by Janice Maynard. It's a very spicy contemporary romance with a bit of mystery and a sweeter secondary romance added in to boot!

Jane and Ethan were best friends growing up and throughout their twenties...until Ethan got engaged. Even though his engagement didn't last long, their separation did. But Jane's New Year's resolution is to stop mooning over Ethan and make an effort to seduce him to her side.

Ethan isn't quite sure how or why he and Jane quit being friends. But recently every time he sees her, he's VERY attracted to her...sexually! His friend Jane! And while once he would have shared everything with her, his recent secret admirer is just a little too threatening for his renewed relationship with Jane to handle.

Jane loves Ethan, and Ethan loves Jane...he just has to figure that out on his own. Fabulous secondary romance with Ethan's sister is just like icing on the cake. VERY hot and very satisfying.

[Miss Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a perfect Valentine’s Day book. I tore through it in a matter of hours! Jane and Ethan were best friends for years. Jane was always secretly waiting for Ethan to make a move on her. However, Ethan got engaged to someone else! Their friendship fell apart, and they’ve not really spoken in four years. It turned out that the fiancé was bad news, and Ethan is gun shy now. He’s been wondering why he and Jane’s friendship ended. (Duh). Jane has also been thinking about Ethan and as her New Years’ resolution, she decides she’s going to be proactive and go after him. She decides to send him one erotic Valentine per week until Valentine’s Day--anonymously.

Jane’s store is vandalized, and Ethan, being the Asst. Police Chief, comes to the scene. He is torn up when he sees how scared Jane is. He offers to stay the night so she will not be alone. He is a perfect gentleman. He sees Jane in a different way.

Their relationship starts to move along, and Jane is wondering why Ethan hasn’t mentioned the Valentines to her. He hasn’t mentioned them to her because he thinks it may be a psycho stalker and he didn’t want to scare her. Jane becomes increasingly more agitated that he is hiding these from her. She’s basically jealous of herself! When she came up with this plan, she didn’t’ factor in that she wouldn’t have a way to monitor it—to see Ethan’s reaction to them. Does he love her like she loves him? Is it all just sex to him?

There is a secondary love story that is really sweet, that involves Ethan’s older sister. Also there is some suspense with the vandalizing to Jane’s store. I figured out the villain pretty early, but I didn’t’ mind because I was enjoying their story so much. Of course there is a wonderful HEA!

I am definitly going to read more Janice Maynard.

[Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been very lucky over the past few days. I have read good book after good book. This is one of them.

It's a quick read and it's cute, slightly stalkerish but sweet. The story is a bit predictable, I called the 'perpetrator' from the first time he was mentioned. It's just one of those books where there are only a handful of characters so that when someone is mentioned for no real reason, it tips you off. I wouldn't call this a romantic suspense, though, because it was small-time suspense.

I rolled my eyes at the ending. We know they will end up together, and I was suprised that her last letter said goodbye (what a turn of events) but I think the author could have done something more interesting with that. And how wasn't he 100% sure it was her sending the letters after he saw the blue envelope? Pft.

Also, the heroine (Jane) was tall and a realistic weight for her height! Her height was only mentioned as being so many pounds lighter than him, so I had to do some quick math, but being that I am quite tall I always keep my eye open for that sort of thing because at nearly 6 foot tall a woman would be severely underweight at 130 pounds. Check the BMI. Yet a lot of (short?) writers make their tall heroines weigh an unrealistic small amount. Just saying, that type of misrepresentation bothers me.

But this was a really sweet read. I was surprised to see that the average rating was so low (3.6 when I checked). I've read a lot worse thats rated higher by many readers ... so I'm not sure what I missed or why you guys have been rating this low. I thoroughly enjoyed it as a means of procrastination this afternoon.

[CraftyBirdies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay I loved this book. I don't know what it was about it specifically, because there were no shapeshifters, no vampires, and no night creatures, but I could not put it down. I read it in one day and I was totally rooting for all the characters. The storyline is like a modern day romance novel and you're pretty sure what's going to happen the whole way, but I still couldn't wait to keep reading it!

The sex scenes are very hot and the hero is a man's man without being a jerk. Always lovely. The side story of the hero's sister and her new date is a fun story too. Good good and Hot hot!

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have this book to read based on Kim's suggestion.
This was a very good book, and a very fast read. I started this book Sunday afternoon and finished it around midnight. It was good enough that I did not want to put it down.
I think I am going to look for some more of Janice Maynard's books.

[Cherie Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a cute story.

[Jane Stewart · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy the author’s writing voice, but the weaknesses in this book are bad plot, conflicts, and motivations.

STORY BRIEF:
Ethan and Jane grew up being best friends. Years earlier Jane realized she wanted more but never acted on it. Ethan’s priority was his career, and he wasn’t thinking about a deeper relationship. Four years ago Ethan became engaged to another woman but broke it off. At that time, Jane was hurt by the engagement and became cold and distant toward Ethan. Now, Jane decides to take a chance and let him know she loves him, anonymously. She mails an anonymous love poem to him. There is a break-in at her shop and Ethan stays one night at her home for her safety. He is assistant police chief. They begin speaking to each other again. The next week Jane sends another anonymous love poem. Ethan realizes he is physically attracted to her and they begin seeing each other.

REVIEWER’S OPINION WITH SOME SPOILERS:
I did not like the game playing. They’ve begun a relationship, yet Jane leaves him at times and refuses to be with him because she is mad that he doesn’t tell her he has been receiving anonymous letters. Since their relationship is so new, she should not expect him to blurt out everything. Ethan did not tell her for two reasons. One, he was afraid she would be hurt and break up with him. Two, he was afraid the anonymous sender might be dangerous, and he wanted to protect Jane. I didn’t buy the second reason. If he really wanted to protect Jane he would tell Jane of a possible threat, not keep her ignorant.

I had another problem. Ethan knew the sender would be mailing another letter on a certain day in a certain mail slot at the post office. He was wondering if the sender might be dangerous. As a policeman, Ethan spent all day at the post office watching to see who the anonymous sender was. He saw Jane put a suspicious envelope in the slot. He should have asked the postal worker to turn it over to see who it was addressed to, but he didn’t, he just left. He was there for most of the day and then didn’t stay until the post office closed? He didn’t ask to see the address? What kind of police work is that? I was frustrated.

Ethan’s actions were not believable. Jane’s insincerity and being mad at him for reasons I didn’t like, bothered me. The major conflicts were based on insincerity and inaccurate assumptions which bother me because they are so overused by romance authors.

A second relationship occurs between Sherry and Randy. I was frustrated with Sherry whose actions and words were mean and insensitive to Randy after he proposed. Because of that, I had trouble liking her. She also acted on inaccurate assumptions. She assumed she was wrong for him because she couldn’t have kids. She loved him but didn’t want to let him know, because she thought “he would use it against her.” What is this – a trial or something? I usually don’t care for stories which have someone refusing to be with another because she fears being hurt. This is another plot device which is overused by romance authors.

On the positive side, I think the author is a talented writer. She creates interesting characters and events. She describes things well. Reading her story is enjoyable if one doesn’t mind the plot problems I mentioned.

DATA:
Story length: 264 pages. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 10. Total number of sex scene pages: 43. Setting: current day Statlerville, Tennessee. Copyright: 2009. Genre: contemporary romance.

[Hina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new-to-me author that I was very excited to read. Maybe a little too excited, because the book seems to have everything I love to read about, friends becoming lovers, secret admirer with very naughty poems and even naughtier scenes. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my excitement for the book, but it was good.

Ethan and Jane had been friends forever until Ethan had gotten engaged. Ethan’s engagement did not last long, but Ethan and Jane never became close friends again. Four years later, making a new years resolution, Jane decides to finally let Ethan know of her feelings for him, but she does not want him to think of her as a “buddy” so she decides to send him erotic valentines anonymously and at Valentine’s Day she will reveal herself as the authoress.

When Jane’s store is vandalized, Ethan as the Assistant Police Chief is called and decides to spend the night at Jane’s apartment. He realizes that he has strong feelings for Jane, but convinces himself it’s because they were such close friends. Jane’s store keeps getting vandalized and Jane and Ethan spend more and more time together that leads to some very sexy love scenes. When Ethan receives the first letter, he is intrigued, but he does not think too much of it. As Ethan and Jane’s relationship keeps developing, Ethan begins to worry that he has a stalker or at least someone who is unbalanced and decides not to tell Jane in order to keep the peace in their budding relationship. Jane keeps waiting for Ethan to mention the valentines and when he doesn’t, she is worried/angry that he is more interested in the mystery writer than her.

This is where the problem began for me, Jane is worrying and angry at Ethan for the lack of mention of the love poems, but she knows she is competing with herself. Ethan had good reasons to keep the notes to himself, because they don’t have that kind friendship anymore and is currently in a romantic relationship. Realistically, it was hard for me to understand why she expected him to confide in her and be angry at him. When Ethan asked her, she did not confess, but dragged out the plot. Also, when Ethan takes it upon himself to figure out the mystery author, he sees Jane dropping a blue letter in the mail which he receives the following day, yet he still convinces himself that she was not the author. It made me question his Assistant Police Chief career. Both characters refuse to believe things that were right in front of them.

What I did like about the book? – Jane and Ethan had good chemistry and the love scenes were hot!! There was a secondary love story of Ethan’s sister Sherry and Randy was great. The idea of writing erotic valentines was a good one. Thrown into the mix was a little suspense involved to keep the story interesting.

The author had a very good concept to work with but I think with anonymous letter, it’s one of the pitfalls when the mystery writer is jealous of her own self. Janice Maynard has a good writing style and I look forward to reading more of her books.


Review can be found on: Hina's Book Lover's Bliss

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

review courtesy of Romance Junkies:

At thirty-two, Jane Norman realizes she is missing something vital in her life, a man. She has been crazy about her friend, Ethan for years and is finally ready to pursue him. With Valentine's Day in the near future, she begins sending him sensual valentines anonymously once a week. When Valentine's Day arrives, she plans to confess all and hopes that Ethan might feel the same.

Ethan has always had feelings toward Jane, but their friendship was severed when Ethan became engaged to a crazy fiance. Years later, single again,
Ethan is suddenly reunited with Jane. Working late, Ethan hears a 911 come in that Jane's stationery store has been broken into and he races to the
scene. Unexpectedly feelings jump out of the pan and into the fire and things really start heating up.

Ethan starts receiving little missives. In the beginning he thinks they are just harmless, but as they keep coming in, he starts to think maybe he has a stalker or worse. He doesn't want Jane involved, so he keeps them secret from her. Will Jane bare all and can they make their newly discovered relationship work?

I am a huge fan of Ms. Maynard and have read all of her books to date, but I have to say, they just keep getting better. HOT MAIL was a truly sensational story. Ms. Maynard is such a talented author and really knows how to bring her characters to life. A truly realistic story about old friends reuniting and finally finding love together. There were situations in this book that were hilarious. I would give you a for instance, but that would be spoiling the fun. This is a Must Read. A true scorcher. I wasn't ready for this one to end.

[Margie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this for the most part. I liked the male hero and the subplot of his sister and her love life. The one thing I really liked was that there were valid reasons behind why Ethan didn't tell Jane about the valentines and mostly valid reasons why he didn't believe they were from her. I could get behind his reasons for not believing anyway.

The one thing that got kind of annoying was Jane's attitude toward the whole thing. She admits to him that she was jealous years ago when he chose another woman over her, and then wonders why he doesn't tell her anything about the anonymous valentines? Then he gives her chances to finally admit they are from her and she still doesn't do it. Then when you finally think she's going to admit it in the "last" note, she doesn't.

But for the most part I liked the interactions and the characterizations.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just ehhh for me. Friends to lovers plot with no angst or character depth. I would say it is empty chic lit. You will forget it before you even move on to your next book.

The poems were cute and the h/h were likable and the secondary couple are cute. I think I enjoyed their story more a least what little story they had it was very rushed. But as with the h/h nothing is developed enough. The ending also fell flat for me. I did enjoy the epilogue.

As I write this review I can't even remember the h/h name????

So yes it entertained me but forgettable.

[Regina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good story about a woman sending anonymous love letters to the man she's secretly been in love with for four years. I thought Ethan was a bit dense that he took so long to recognize his feelings for Jane, but their sexual encounters were hot and fun. I also thought Jane wrote some great love poems. Imagine getting love poetry like that--Whew! 4 stars.

[John Orman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seduction by mailing weekly anonymous Valentines!
How come that never happens to me?

Hot Mail is pretty hot stuff--and this erotic thriller delivers the heat! After a stationery store is vandalized, the hero comes to the rescue and the heroine and her erotic alter ego are competing for the hero's affections. That virtual competition really heats the action up!

[GoodReadsAaroniero · Rating 1 out of 5]

"He was shaking like a malaria patient, his hips thrusting upward, even as Jane bore down, her hands
at his shoulders, her eyes closed as she rode him slowly."

WTF? That's some messed up comparisons. I think that the author got inspired by Victorian/Regency romances when I read the last 20 pages or so.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The tag line reads: One naughty valentine at a time, she's going to fulfill her secret fantasy & make him hers ...
I could not have said this better! Great story and just in time for Valentine's Day!

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked the poems

[Lindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love her writing, loved these characters -- excellent!

[HelenRuby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the idea of sending hot notes. Couple of lags but enjoyed the book

[Irinak Kish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming, romantic, and fast read

[Angi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got it at Borders for $4...was happily surprised! It was cute, with a good story. I would read another by her.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great quick read. But please no more epilogues featuring weddings or babies. We already got that they're going to live HEA from the 'romance' designation.

[Elsie Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was exciting and romantic and suspenseful... I loved it!

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* This was better than I expected. I'm not familiar with this author, I liked this book enough to look for more by her.

[Melanie♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Mari · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars